Railway track



Apfil 2s, 1931."v R. FA'RIES 1;*8o3,009

W1 w l JNVENTQR.- Z4 ,w Y Raben Tunes Patented pr. .28, 1931 PATENT Fries RBEBT FARIEOF ST. DAVIDS, PENNSYLVANIA RAILWAY TRACK Application led January 23, 1980. Serial No. 422,932.

lVhere the rails of a railway track abut they are held in alignment by jointbars (sometimes termed fish plates) bolted to the webs of the rails. Under track usage the contacting surfaces of the rails and jointbars Wear, and in order to maintain `rigidity of the structure itis necessary periodically to tighten the nuts on the bolts which unite the rails and jointbars, an operation which is resisted by the rusting of the thread of the bolt and freezing of the nut in place.

The intervals at which the bolts require to be tightened canbe lengthened, the tightening operation facilitated,.and the track rendered more rigid and noisele'ss by maintaining oil on the contacting surfaces of rail and jointbar and upon the threaded end of the bolt upon which the nut must be tightened. Efforts have been made to effect this by the 0 injection of oil into the space between the jointbars and the rails, but so .far as l am aware these efforts have failed, either because l the oil so injected has been so fluid as to run out of place and disappear in a short time, or else where efforts have been made to retain the oil in place by means of a fabric an opposite condition has prevailed, the fabric after parting with some of the oil holding the remainder so tenaciously on the inside of the jointbar as to prevent its disseminating itself.

T have discovered a way of distributing and maintaining oil upon these surfacesfor a long period of time which I will now describe.

In order to keep the oil in place it has heretofore been proposed to incorporate it with a fabric such as a felt or a textile or a mass of cotton waste. These materials are so absorbent and they hold most of the oil so tenaciously that there is prevented that slow and continued dissemination which alone accomplishes the desired end. l have discoveredmatter flows with the oil and permits its gradual and continued dissemination.

Railroads reclaim their Waste oil by redistillation. This re-distillation leaves a residuum or sludge oil of little or no value. l mix this sludge oil with a suiiicient quanl tityofWood flour to produce an oily compound rom which oil will not too readily iiow but which when placed between the rail and jointbar will form itself into a :nass of 50 such consistency as to slowly ioW and disseminate itself for along time.

The accomplishment of the desired result depends upon the proper admixture of the oil with the wood flour, and this in turn depends upon the viscosity of the oil produced as a residuum of the distillation of which I have spoken, it being necessary to addy enough of the wood flour to attain in the admixture a proper degree of consistency.

An example of the practice of my invention as applied to jointbars of a standard construction is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, whereof:

Fig. I-is a plan view of a jointbar filled with a packing comprising the above described mixture,- a part of one of the rails being broken away for convenience in illustration; and

Fig. H is a cross section of the same taken 30 along the lines U-Tl of Fig. I.

Tn the accompanying drawings l is aerail.

2, 2 are the jointbars. 3 is the bolt passing through a slot in the web of the rail, and 4 is the bolt nut. The hole for the bolt at its head s end is non-circular preventing rotation. The hole for the threaded end of the bolt is` unthreaded leaving a spiral passage extending to the face of the nut 4. The interspace between the web of the rail and the jointbars is lled with a mass 5 of the material just described.

T will describe two methods of application. First I inject this ily material 5 into the space between the rails and their connecting jointbars. This injection is best accomplished by means of a device which injects the material simultaneously at both ends of the interspace betweeny the rail and the jointl bar under pressure. For this purpose the material used must be of efsuiliciently iuid consistency to enable it to be handled in the manner I have described. I have found that by 'mixing say about 88 lbs. of ,Wood flour j 5 with l2 lbs. of residuum there is produced a mixture well adapted to my purpose but the proportions may vary according to the consistency of the materials so long as the result is a mixture which is sufficiently uid or viscous to be handled in the Way I have described, but. not more -fluid -than is necessary. Under these conditions the material settles in its position between the jointbars and the rails and does not lose its oil while yet slowly Aexuding and distributing itself along the adjacent surfaces and through the bolt holes or thread spaces of the bolts to the outside of the jointbar. In this Way there is obtained a permanent lubrication of the contacting surfaces of the jointbar and rail. The

oily mixture also' travels along the bolt and lubricates the threaded surface upon which the nut must be tightened.

Second. Another method o accomplishing my, result is to produce a mixture of the same materials of a somewhat greater consistency, or plasticity for which the proportion of wood iiour must be increased. In this way'I obtain a homogeneous combination of 'residuum and wood flour in a plastic .condition capable of being molded into a Hat cake of suitable sh ape which is applied to the web of the rails atI the -jointsand covered by they jointbar when put in place, the bolt being run directly through it. This material similarly slowly exudes and disseminates itself.

j My procedure accomplishes several desirable results. It facilitates the tightening operation by rendering easy the screwing up 40 of the nut- The lubrication and the packing of the inte-rspaces between the rails and jointbar-s renders the track more noiseless under usage. The Wear of both rail and j ointbar is lessened. The ultimate freezing up of l the track joints which prevents Aexpansion and contraction of the rails is overcome.

Other available oil than that which I have mentioned mayA .be used, and other comminuted vegetable fiber lthan Wood flour may 60 fill the requirements provided that when combined with the oil it produces an oily substance which slowly disseminates itself and yet which has cient consistency to make possible its ap lic tion to or injection into the interspaceb rail. 4

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a rail joint, the combination with adjacent rails, an overlapping joint bar, and

withthe oil along the adjacent surfaces and through the bolt holes and thread spaces, thus *between the joint bar and rail ends, consisting of oil residuum mixed and combined with comminuted vegetable-matter of such tineness and in such proportions that while the oil is retained in the joint by the vegetable matter, yet the latter ows and distributes itself throughout the joint along with the oil.

3. In a rail joint, the combination with adjacent -rails, :in-overlapping joint bar, and bolts securing the joint bar to the rails, of a self-disseminating lubricant mass in the space between joint bar and rail ends, consisting of oilmixed and combined with wood lour in such proportions that while remaining in the joint the compound automatically flows and disseminates itself through. the intersticesand lubricates the joint.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto signed my name at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this 20th day of January` 1930.

4 ROBERT FARIES.

etween the jointbar andthe bolts securing the joint bar to the rails, of a self-disseminating lubricant mass in the space between joint bar and rail ends, consisting ot' oil mixed and combined with a retentive but fluent iinely divided vehicle, which flows 

